Biology

Physiology

Bulbasaur is a quadruped, reptilian creature that somewhat resembles a toad or a young dinosaur with a spotted blue-green hide. It has three white toes or claws growing out of its four legs, and its eyes are a bright red. The most notable feature of this Pokémon is the onion-like bulb on its back, which grows from a seed planted on its back by its mother at birth. Bulbasaur's bulb shares a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial for both. This allows Bulbasaur to get an enhanced boost of energy from the sun during the day and the bulb to remain growing and strong at night. The bulb also contains many seeds from which it draws nutrients.

Though they usually walk on four legs, a Bulbasaur can rise up on its hind legs. When it evolves into Ivysaur, the bulb becomes a larger flower bud, making it nearly impossible for one to rise on its hind legs.

The bulb can absorb sunlight, allowing Bulbasaur to restore health with Synthesis or fire a powerful SolarBeam.

Behavior

Most Bulbasaur are domesticated Pokémon, raised by breeders to be distributed as starter Pokémon in the Kanto region. Due to this, they are regarded as mostly well-behaved Pokémon. In fact, some consider them the easiest Pokémon to start with as well as the fact that they have a type advantage over the first two Gym Leaders in Kanto.

Bulbasaur tend to have a strong loyalty to their friends and Trainers. In The Mystery Menace, for example, a Bulbasaur was abandoned by its Trainer in the sewers of Trovitopolis and remained there for decades yet was still happy to see him when finally brought out from the sewer by Ash and his friends.

It is shown in Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden that once
annually in Kanto, large groups of Bulbasaur gather in a hidden garden to become Ivysaur. It is unknown whether or not this is the case in other regions.

Bulbasaur can sometimes be found lying in the sun during the day to photosynthesize energy when food is scarce.

When a baby Pokémon, such as Togepi or a newly hatched Bulbasaur, is crying and all other methods of calming down the baby fail, Bulbasaur may use its vines to perform its Bulba-by, where it rocks the baby back and forth in the air and sings to it. This has only been recorded once by humans, making it seem that some people do not even believe that this behavior is real.

Habitat

Bulbasaur are scarce in the wild. Sometimes they can be found in secret places such as gardens, plains near large sources of fresh water, or hiding in the forest in hollow logs, but overall, they are found far more often in the ownership of Trainers. It is native to Kanto.

Much later on, when Ash was traveling in the Hoenn region, his companion May captured her own Bulbasaur after being separated from the group in Grass Hysteria!. It remained with her throughout the rest of her journey in Hoenn, helping her to compete in the regionalGrand Festival. When she traveled to Kanto to continue her journey with Ash in The Right Place and the Right Mime, May, too, left her Bulbasaur at Professor Oak's lab to learn from Ash's while she and Ash's group traveled throughout the Battle Frontier in Kanto. May retrieved it during her travels in Johto, where it evolved all the way into a Venusaur.

Other

A Bulbasaur that used to belong to the Mayor of Trovitopolis appeared in The Mystery Menace. In his childhood, the mayor abandoned his Bulbasaur and sent it into the sewers when it wouldn't evolve into Ivysaur. Aided by Misty and Tracey, Ash found the abandoned Bulbasaur while searching for his own, which had gone missing. After defeating the arrogant mayor and his personal SWAT team, Ash and company left the Bulbasaur, which had grown rather large in its time in the sewers, with Nurse Joy.

Minor appearances

Bulbasaur was mentioned in the first episode of the anime, Pokémon - I Choose You!, as one of the three starter Pokémon new Trainers in Pallet Town can choose from. Ash dreamed of owning one, and it was his second choice of a starter, after Squirtle. However, when he arrived at Oak's lab, it was too late, as an unnamed Trainer who started the same day had already taken it.

Pokédex entries

Bulbasaur, it bears the seed of a plant on its back from birth. The seed slowly develops. Researchers are unsure whether to classify Bulbasaur as a plant or animal. Bulbasaur are extremely calm and are difficult to capture in the wild.

In the TCG

Other appearances

Melee trophy information

Bulbasaur is a cute Pokémon born with a large seed firmly affixed to its back; the seed grows in size as the Pokémon does. Along with Squirtle and Charmander, Bulbasaur is one of the three Pokémon available at the beginning of Pokémon Red and Blue. It evolves into Ivysaur.

Brawl trophy information

"A Seed Pokémon. From birth, Bulbasaur carries a large plant seed on its back. It uses the nutrients from the seed to grow bigger and bigger. Extended exposure to the sun will cause its body and seed to grow in size. Some say that once, when the seed was much lighter, Bulbasaur was able to get around on two legs. Bulbasaur evolves into Ivysaur."

Other sprites

Trivia

Niue released a one-dollar coin featuring Bulbasaur as part of a commemorative promotion for the Pokémon franchise, with Bulbasaur on one side and the nation's coat of arms on the other.

Bulbasaur's evolution family is the only starter Pokémon evolution family to have each member appear at least once in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Bulbasaur is the only unevolved dual type starter Pokémon.

Bulbasaur is the first Pokémon in the National Pokédex order. By default, this also makes it the first Grass type, Poison type, dual-type Pokémon, unevolved Pokémon, and starter Pokémon in National Pokédex order.

Since in Generation I, the Bug type was super-effective against Poison-type Pokémon, Bulbasaur was also the first Pokémon in National Pokédex order with a double weakness (to Bug type). Due to Generation II's changes to type effectiveness, this "honor" has since been taken by Charizard, which has a double weakness to Rock-type moves.

Bulbasaur and its evolutions comprise the first three-stage evolutionary family in National Pokédex order.

Bulbasaur and its evolutions share the same species name as Sunkern. They both are known as the Seed Pokémon.

Origin

Bulbasaur appears to be based primarily on some form of reptile, specifically mammal-like reptiles known as Dicynodonts from the Permian period. Along with visible ears and no genuine metamorphosis stage (evolution aside), Bulbasaur appears to have more in common with mammals than amphibians like frogs and toads, which metamorphose from one definite creature into another as they mature as opposed to just growing into a larger adult version of itself the way that Bulbasaur does.